mongo_jones

i don't buy sushi-grade fish and so haven't looked deeply into it. however, hanh ah reum in aurora (or for that matter, komart too) has fish already packaged for sushi--probably a much wider selection than you'd get at a whole foods. from the vietnamese markets on federal i've only ever bought whole fish--i don't know that they sell sushi grade fish or that i'd buy it from there. have never been to pacific mercantile--where is it again?

i wish the pre-therapy evil cleese of the "undertakers" sketch or most of "the meaning of life" would occasionally make a showing. this show is pretty insipid.

okay, so santiago's green chile is as advertised. where should we go next? and when?

i have nothing to add here other than to say that i do appreciate the allusion in the thread title.

all you need to know about this list is that it has only 4 restaurants from the greater los angeles area listed and one of them is an outpost of chin chin in santa monica.

afoodnut, in order to forestall paralysis from too much choice i am going to unilaterally pick the santiago's and your house option. when is good for you?

independent of colorado outing #4 i'd like to call for an informal boulder county mexican food run. i am yet to make it to ephrain's or santiago's (or to find that taco truck) and it may take the lure of good company to make it happen. anyone?

let's not forget that i backed out of the last outing too. but angkor sounds good. name a date and make it so.

saul, how many dishes did you order? i've found that there are a lot of very subtle dishes at chungking. on our first few trips we used to also do the "hot" blowout, but then we started letting the owner/manager guide our orders. these days, on our trips to l,a, when we go with our friends (also usually groups of 6) we get one super hot dish (usually the ma-po tofu), one that's kinda-hot and other things that aren't at all really. their fish dishes and the sizzling rice dishes are wonderfully complex--as are the prickly-ash spare-ribs. so the stuffed pumpkin was not in evidence?

we didn't make too much of a fuss about the waiter etc. largely because we are more amused than anything by these kinds of things. in any case, the space is so small that it doesn't seem possible to speak discreetly with anyone anyway--and it was hard to tell who the manager was. if the food had blown us away this would probably not have deterred us from going back, but it didn't. and so we'll be checking out adega and frasca for our next few special outings--and i'd go back to luca (frantic water-pouring and all) before i'd go back to mizuna. frank bonnano was in the house and working the room. he didn't come to our table either--perhaps he was going only to the tables of regulars? or perhaps, since it is obvious from looking at me that i am not a professional athlete, he couldn't think of any small-talk he could make with us? edit to add: at the table next to ours the conversation with frank seemed to revolve around golf games and houses in aspen.

so, we're back. quick review follows: food: decent to good. mrs. jones started with the veal sweetbreads saltimbocca and moved on to a duck breast with something or the other. i had their trademark "mac and cheese" to start and moved on to the double-grilled pork chop. mrs. jones' items were all good. my mac and cheese was good, but my pork chop was over-cooked. everything was more than competent but nothing blew us away. ambience: some might say their tables are set too close to each other in a place where the cheapest entree is in the mid 20s. service: um. read on: our waiter started off somewhat friendly but seemed to lose interest in us as soon as we said we wouldn't be having any wine (mrs. jones can take it or leave it and till tomorrow i am on medication that doesn't allow for alcohol). from this moment to his taking our order took about 15 minutes. in this time he took the wine and food orders for two tables that were seated after us, brought two others their desserts, another a check and engaged in hearty conversations at all of these tables. while walking around he studiously avoided eye-contact with us. i predicted to mrs. jones that there might be a 15% tip in his future-if he was lucky. eventually he took our orders with a marked lack of enthusiasm and proceeded to ignore us for pretty most of the rest of the evening. those who remember my luca review will recall the overly-aggressive water refilling; well, this gent seemed to be of the opposite school--at one point i went 10 minutes with an empty glass and our man nowhere in sight. our food took a long time to arrive--along the way there was a mixup as i watched the hostess take our order to the wrong table; unfortunately, one of the people there had also ordered the pork-chop, so she left it with him and walked indignantly back to the open kitchen, only to be informed that she'd served the wrong table. she actually went back in an attempt to retrieve the pork-chop but the dude had already dug in. this meant our food took longer to arrive, and i'm convinced it was during the argument between the chef and the hostess that my chop got left longer than it was meant to on the grill. our original waiter did not materialize until 10 minutes after the food arrived--and i hadn't had the energy to track anyone down to complain about the chop (also, it wasn't that overcooked either). since we'd filled ourselves up with bread while waiting for our order to be taken, and then waiting for our entrees to arrive, we had no room for dessert. our waiter sniffed on being informed of this state of affairs, as though to say that he was not surprised. when the bill arrived he made me a prophet--i couldn't bring myself to tip less than 15%, but i gave him exactly 15%. before tax. rlm, you'll be glad to know we won't be picking mizuna over frasca again. a side-note: we've now been to luca once and mizuna once and at both places we were pretty much the only people of color. is this too small a sample-size or is this par for the course in the denver fine-dining scene?

let me refer you to the state of colorado's budget spending on higher education

bless you joanne--i'm still waiting for the ghost of christmas future. but: i think things that don't have tea in them shouldn't be called tea. maybe hot, flavored water?

nope--been to luca but not to mizuna (we've only been here a year and tend to spend more of our money on ingredients and non-fancy restaurants). but everyone here raves about it.

thanks! that's a nice website--now i want everything on the september menu! hope october's menu will be as good. made a reservation for saturday dinner using open table--report forthcoming on sunday.

do they have a website? thinking of making a reservation for saturday night--curious about the current menu. has anyone been recently?

such things should be branded "atroci-teas"--is there actually any tea in this foul potion?

amy, don't mean to be cryptic. i've posted the review elsewhere--i'd rather not have two parallel conversations on two different sites and so. and i'm not sure if it is kosher to post links to food forums on other sites on egullet--if interested parties pm me i will send them the link. mongo

have been--link to detailed review available upon request

maybe some mud as well? i was referring to the color of the dish--my keema dishes also have an earthy taste--maybe they aren't using the amount of cream you normally find in indian restaurant meat dishes, thereby allowing a natural meat and vegetables flavor to emerge?

people, people, there is a very simple answer to this conundrum. you are all over-thinking the matter. 3 words: artificial food coloring

glad you liked it--but thanks go to mrs. jones. let me know if there's anything else you've been looking for in koreatown and i'll see if i can get her to be of help for a change.

russ, you need to go on a food-trip to india. in hyderabad--where i finished high-school--a local specialty is something called the 70mm dosa. the number refers not to the dimensions of the dosa but to the 70mm projector that is the preferred way of projecting bollywood extravaganzas. the dosa in question is humongous--almost takes over the entire table. eating your way to the spicy stuff in the middle takes a while. i always wondered about the size of the pans in which these monsters must be fried. the chana-bhatura you describe also sounds intriguing--i hope the local branch features it. in punjab (which is the region i associate bhaturas with) the bhatura is rarely stuffed with the chana. if you like chana-bhaturas i would also recommend the excellent version (as good as anything i've eaten in similar places in india) at india sweet house on pico. mongo

i am intrigued--will check out our local woodlands soon, and the artesia outpost in december. as vegetarian udipi/tamilian cuisine spreads in the u.s i hope it will lead also to a greater presence of the great non-veg incorporating cuisines of south india. since these cuisines don't have a long restaurant history, even in india, they haven't really been bastardized very much; and the douse with cream approach seen in so many north-indian restaurants even in india doesn't apply here. both in flavors and healthfulness much of these cuisines would, i think, catch on in the u.s quite quickly. however, the hegemony of chicken tikka masala and bright red tandoori chicken may not be so easily overcome. here in boulder we have one restaurant, saffron, which gives recipes from some of these traditions a dominant place on their menu (to middling effect, in my opinion)--i think the new place that is supposed to open soon off broadway is also going to feature south-indian non-veg. strange that boulder will soon have two such places whereas i am not aware of there being any in los angeles--though i haven't been to artesia in a while. rlm, when are you planning to go to woodlands? perhaps we could coordinate? we will likely need to do a big korean grocery run in aurora at the end of next week.

yes, portland is cool. but try doing a road trip through southern oregon. a white ex-girlfriend and i spent the night in that athens of the pacific northwest, gold beach oregon. we went to an "italian" restaurant for dinner--conversation stopped completely when we walked in the door. then again this was a town of psychos in many ways--the special sauces that night were some species of red sauce and some species of lemon based sauce. i asked for the red. the waiter showed up with the food and informed that since he couldn't remember whether i'd asked for the red or the lemon he'd asked the chef to mix them. then again perhaps this was a sociological comment of some sort--and not a positive one since the sauce was all but inedible. on that same trip (on the way up) we'd spent some nights in ashland at a b&b whose proprietors told us "ashland needs more people like you". strange, since they'd also told us that they'd moved to oregon because "arizona's gotten too liberal for us". they were excellent cooks though--we had some great breakfasts; and i also ate a great venison bourguignonne at a local restaurant for lunch.